Moderated by Bob Papworth, executive editor of Buying Business
Travel, the session's panellists were Sarah Makings, european
category manager - travel at KPMG LLP; Ricky Kapoor, commercial
director of The Edinburgh Collection; Lone Konradsen, account
director at BSI Travel; and Edward Bracken, owner of The Gore and
The Pelham Hotels. Watch video highlights
of the discussion.

The attendees were a mixture of hotel owners and operators, and
service suppliers and included Grant Powell, general manager of The
Arch London, Paul Hemmings, VP sales at Red Carnation Hotels,
Samantha Trinder, managing director of The Bingham Hotel, and
Nicola Lomas, director of corporate travel services at
OmnicomGroup, who is also the chairman of the Institute of Travel
and Meetings.

Bob Papworth kicked off proceedings with fairly staggering
numbers: the annual UK corporate hospitality and travel spend is
£25 billion, and members of the Guild of Travel Managers are on
course to deliver pre-recession levels of hotel transactions in
2012, at over 4 million.

The speakers were then asked the seemingly impossible question -
what defines a boutique hotel? As ever there were varying answers,
but one constant was that it was somewhere that is small and
flexible enough to offer guests a very high level of service, and
to have a personal relationship with them. Lone Konradsen said a
boutique hotel is somewhere that "when you walk in, you see
something different, something that stands out from the
crowd".

An issue that was quickly identified was the difficulty for
boutique hotels - which generally have a much smaller number of
rooms - to manage any inventory set aside for corporate business.
It is hard for a small property to guarantee to have rooms
available for corporates, and as Ricky Kapoor observed: "We can't
accept high volume, low rate business - it doesn't allow us to
provide the service we want to and that our guests expect."

One area where boutique hotels can use their flexibility to their
advantage is by putting packages together which enable corporate
travel managers to address the total cost of stay of their
travellers. Where some of the bigger chains - who it was claimed
can be indifferent about promoting themselves and working to
attract corporate business - will often add a range of extra costs
to an initially attractive room rate, boutique hotels can put
together deals which include free wifi, parking etc.

"The total cost of stay needs to be as controllable and
predictable as possible," according to Sarah Makings, and boutique
hotels are in a good position to help with that issue.

Both Sarah and Lone suggested that if boutique properties are
struggling with allocating part of their limited room inventory to
corporate business, they should consider concentrating on the
growing meetings and private dining sector - this is an immature
market but one which the corporates are becoming more heavily
focused on.

Audience member Brian Yates, of The Appointment Group, asked the
panel if they were members of business groups and associations,
which led on to a discussion of the importance of networking.
Edward Bracken stressed the importance of making your brand visible
by attending events where you will come in to contact with your
target market - he also said The Gore and The Pelham aim to turn
satisfied guests into ambassadors for the hotels within their
corporate organisation.

Bob Papworth brought proceedings to a close with a tip to
hoteliers to take of advantage of their local business connections,
when networking, as they can lead on to bigger things.

The next Boutique Hotel News networking event will be held in the
new year, and will be themed around attracting the Chinese guest.
If you are interested in sponsoring or speaking at the event,
contact info@boutiquehotelnews.com